Youngster wins share contest

A four-year-old girl today proved the Stock Market was child's play by winning a share prediction contest against an investor and an astrologer.

Amidst a week of extreme financial turbulence, Tia Laverne Roberts, from south east London lost the least cash after participating in a fantasy share portfolio experiment to launch National Science Week.

Each participant chose three companies and their losses and gains were tracked with the winner being announced this morning.

Tia picked her shares through a random method, financial astrologer Christeen Skinner chose to study the heavens for her predictions while investor Mark Goodson used his experience as a private investor.

Ms Skinner lost 10% on her shares while Mr Goodson lost 7% on his shares and triumphant Tia lost just 4.5% on her shares - her reward will be a trip to a MacDonald's restaurant.

But experts deny that their army of highly paid financial analysts had been damaged by the experiment.

They insist that investments can only be properly judged over a period of 12 months.

The news was delivered at the Barclays Stockbrokers premises in Murray House in London.